Adding unlisted printer to the Win10 list

I have an old but well looked after HP LaserJet 4050TN. It has produced around half a million pages, had a new fuser, an upgraded JetDirect and still works well. It's networked via cable straight off the router.


It's primarily used with my desktop PC of which only the case and a HDD can be considered original! I've been on Win10 64 for a long time now and the printer installed readily as the printer was listed in Win 10's list of printers. Everything is fine.


I now have a Win 10 64 bit laptop which sadly does not list any of the LaserJet 4000 series. I have clicked "update" under the list but every time I get a message indicating no success and try again later.


I have managed to get the printer to work via a generic HP PCL5 driver but then theprinter is not listed under "printers" but as an "other device". This setting does not give access to setting the default paper size, scaling, duplexing, resolution and other options. A printer is detected on the port (192.168.1.3) but not uniquely indentified. (This does not seem to be an issue on my desktop PC,)


Is there a way to manually add the printer *.inf and other files to the Win 10 list of printers so that the printer appears correctly, and as a printer?


Both computers are running Ver 1803 ©2018, but slightly different builds AFAICS.


Hope you can help.

Usually an Ethernet connected printer will use a higher IP number, mine are 192.168.1.136 and 192.168.1.131, could be the lower IP number is in conflict with something else. Mine are connected via Ethernet cable to my Wireless Router and any printer that can get the Internet will be available if I install its software choosing Network.

For the Version of Windows, hold down the Windows key and press R, type winver and press enter, will give the Version and the Build numbers.

There's no issue with the IP addresses - they're fixed in the router, along with other printers, NAS drives, PVRs, TVs, &c. This is so mobile phones and family laptops have no issue with potentially changing IP addresses via the DHCP.

The issue is the current (as in pretty new, this year) laptop and its version of windows will not update the printer list, telling me to try again later. It's being going for several days now.

All I'm asking is HP LaserJet 4000 series appears in the list of printer - either by an update or I do it manually somehow.

That is an older printer and HP's site shows the newest version of Windows supported is Vista 32-bit.
HP LaserJet 4000 Printer series - Driver Downloads | HP® Customer Support
Attachment 192180

I know. But it shows up on my Win 10 PC but not on my Win 10 laptop.

How do I get it to show on my laptop?

Anytime you add a standard network printer (no fluff, no bundled apps), you'd use the second option down in dmholt57's screenshot. Enter the IP and if the drivers are available, Windows 10 will determine what to use and install the printer. That's called Direct IP printing, and HP's been using that very method for at least 15 years.